The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Commission seeks report from BU on postgraduate admissions

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Tuesday, Dec 08, 2009
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Commission seeks report from BU on postgraduate admissions

Laiqh A. Khan

Varsity under scanner over ‘manipulation’ of PG admissions

Commission began probe after receiving complaint from father of aggrieved student
University seeks more time to respond

BANGALORE: Bangalore University has come under the scanner of the State Commission for Backward Classes for allegedly changing categories during admissions to postgraduate courses for the year 2009-10.

The commission, which had sought details from the university on the admission process for M.Sc. Biochemistry, has allegedly come across glaring instances of general merit candidates being shifted to reserved categories and vice versa in gross violation of reservation norms. Besides, the university was found to have misled the commission with wrong information.

The university exposed itself further by claiming to have admitted 16 students to the M.Sc. Biochemistry programme at Maharani’s Science College for Women, after informing the commission that the intake for the much-sought-after- course had been brought down to 15 from 30 as mentioned in the prospectus due to insufficient facilities. To make matters worse, the university had furnished a list containing only 14 names of students to the commission.

Taking serious exception to the university’s alleged manipulation of admissions, commission Chairman C.S. Dwarkanath wrote a letter to Vice-Chancellor Prabhu Dev on December 2 seeking the original records pertaining to this year’s admission to the course in the college. “The commission hereby summons the connected records to be produced before the chairman on or before December 3, without fail,” the letter said.

However, the university responded on December 3 with a letter by Dr. Dev seeking more time as the Postgraduate Admission Committee chairman K. Eresi was abroad and was expected to return only on December 7.

The commission began probing into the admission process after receiving a complaint from Mohammed Iqbal, a resident of R.T. Nagar in the city, stating that his daughter Sameena Taj, who had sought a seat for M.Sc. Biochemistry in Maharani’s Science College for Women had been wronged by the university authorities.

After obtaining information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, Mr. Iqbal pointed out that three general merit candidates had been shifted to reserved categories 2A, 3A and SC, while two SC candidates had been moved to the general merit category.

‘Deliberate’

“The manipulation has been done deliberately to deny Sameena a seat in the college though she has scored 75.25 per cent marks in the qualifying exams, a score higher than some whose names have been shifted across categories. No admission has been given to any Muslim girl, either under the general merit or the 2B categories. This shows that the university is prejudiced,” he said in the complaint.

Private college

After being “denied” a seat in the college, Ms. Taj was allotted a private college on the outskirts of the city.

“She gave up her desire to study further, as the fee in the private college was too high and she had to change a couple of buses to reach the college every day,” Mr. Iqbal said.

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